The development came days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had signed on the body of a Bayraktar TB2 drone before being launched into Afrin.

The Turkish military said on Monday that a total of 1,369 terrorists had been killed since the beginning of Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s Afrin on January 20. The military added that Turkish airstrikes have also destroyed 15 YPG strongholds and weapons depots.

Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984. Erdogan has repeatedly said that Afrin should be cleared of “terrorists,” and demanded the deployment of Turkish troops there during a speech back in November 2016.